That’s right, last night we had our first legitimate rainfall! As I may have mentioned, the rainy season is said to bring mangoes, more hydro-power, cooler weather, a colorful landscape, “creepy-crawlies”, and malaria! What a combo!
Also, since yesterday was the last Sunday in Ordinary time and next Sunday we will be beginning our holiday travels, I have officially begun my weeklong marathon of NSYNC and 98 Degrees Christmas music!
Even though I haven’t taught since exam season began, I have stayed fairly busy. Currently I am working on 2 fairly large projects. I have to grade my class’ 69 exams, each with 25 questions. The fun part about that is the fact that the district-created and district-distributed answer key isn’t necessarily fully correct or clear. Let’s just say it’s been a tedious adventure so far….
Also, I am frantically and frustratingly trying to work with limited and slow internet to put together a Christmas fundraiser for the trade school. It is called “The Christmas Brick Project”, and you’ll hear plenty more about it if it actually comes to fruition. (Don’t worry, writing this blog is not wasting said precious internet time, as I am writing it on my internetless computer).
Also, Mike and I made a bold move last week…we went to the VTC tailor shop to get fitted for pants and shirts…without translators. It seemed like it went smoothly, and we definitely made it clear that we each wanted pants and a shirt. Sidenote: When I pointed to the fabric I liked for pants, the woman said, “Trousers??” I affirmed that I knew what I was doing. It turns out it was the least expensive material possible, and I think she expected me to go for something a little more high-end. Apparently I’ve become so thrifty that I do it on accident. The pants and shirt ended up being about 15 U.S. dollars total (fabric and labor)! How were the finished products? Well, the pants are perfect besides the fact that I recently learned my waist is about the same circumference as a Frisbee. The waist of my pants?...Substantially smaller than the circumference of a Frisbee. Let’s just say I have to do quite the dance to get situated into the pants... The shirt looks pretty sweet, but they added some crazy embroidery that make it only wearable to feasts and celebrations (thus, it’s not the teaching shirt I wanted). It will, however make a great “This is my crazy African shirt” shirt when I return home!
In other random and exciting news, we got word from Peace Corps friend that there were packages for us at the post office. I’ll try to make a long story short: We caught the first Saturday bus into Songea, and we got to the post office at 10:30 (we stopped to see the 3 awesome sisters referenced in the previous blog), and we were still there around 12:30. First they just told us to wait. Then they said the parcel man wasn’t there. Then he came. Then he said the customs man wasn’t there. Then we called the parcel man and convinced him to come in. He eventually let us search for packages and we found 2 for Mike and one for me (thanks Hansen family!). It turns out there were two packages for an American volunteer that had already gone home, so we were supposed to take those too. All of a sudden we were figuring out how to get 5 sizable packages onto an already packed bus back to Hanga. What a great problem to have! We have all the sweets and fiber and rosaries we could ask for! For reference, we’re not sure how long the packages sat there. I received two packages within two weeks of them being sent, but I also know of a package sent over a month ago that’s not here. I did hear of a volunteer who received half of a Christmas tree in November and the other half in June…Oh Tanzanian Postal Service!
The last mini-story occurred when we went to pick up our “tailored” clothes. There were a bunch of village kids throwing rocks at a monkey (apparently not their rafiki), but their attention quickly switched to swarming us (luckily we don’t look too much like monkeys apparently- no mzungus were harmed in the making of this memory). They played the game where they see how many of them can hold our hands at once while we walk. We commenced to exhausting the extent of our Swahili with them and they did the same with their English. Then we went over Spanish, English, Swahili, and Italian numbers (not sure who was teaching who most of the time). It ended with somersaults into the dirt. I think that part was one of those “you had to be there” things, but it felt like their equivalent to playing in the snow!
Also, the other night we visited our Italian friends out in a very remote village nearby, and our reward for finding the place was some delicious Italian pasta and wonderful company! The food was SO GOOD!
Finally, since next blog will be my “Thanksgiving Edition”, I should explain at least briefly the travelling we’ll be doing. This travelling may very well decrease the frequency of my blogs. Don’t worry though, that just means you faithful readers will have one less excuse to distract yourselves from the work you’re supposed to be doing! Plus, I’ll take as many pictures as possible. Anyway, we figure now that we’ve taught for a solid month, we might as well travel for a month (actually, there’s not really work here right now, and it’s the only chance to travel for me, at least). Thus, Mike, Teresa (Austria), and I will head to Dar es Salaam on Sunday. From there we will catch a bus to Nairobi, Kenya to visit Simon, Alex, and Fr. Francis! Then we’ll head to Kampala, Uganda for a while. From there it’s off to Kigali, Rwanda, and then we go back to Nairobi for Christmas. On the way back to Hanga we plan to visit some Seminary students throughout Tanzania. It is important to note that we are, indeed looping around Lake Victoria (in case you’re looking at a map). However, I will refer to it as something different…This trip will be called the “Tour de Frisbee- East Africa”. Let’s just say I’m already in contact with organized Frisbee in Nairobi, Kampala, and Kigali. Game on, Hapana Pipi!
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